


The Opening Skirmish

by Ingonyama



Series: The Crossroads [4]
Category: Final Fantasy VII, Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Action Scene, All-Out War, Fight Scene, Flagrant mish-mashing of magic systems, Gen, M/M, Materia, No Sex, Transformation, hulking out
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-13
Updated: 2013-11-13
Packaged: 2018-01-01 09:54:16
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,002
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1043437
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ingonyama/pseuds/Ingonyama
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Part 4 of "The Crossroads". Luxord is tired of waiting around and tries to reclaim his other self.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Opening Skirmish

**Author's Note:**

> This was supposed to lead in to the eventual first meeting of Lux and Cid, but I haven't done anything with this story in almost 5 years. That may change, but but don't get your hopes up.
> 
> Even though KH makes no mention of Materia, I decided to give some to Cid and Vin. I like the idea of magic working differently in different worlds.
> 
> Xaldin and Luxord's relatonship is SUPPOSED to be unhealthy as hell.
> 
> This fic, and by extension the series in general, is dedicated to goldphishcrackers, who woke me up to the story possibilities this scenario presented once upon a time.

Luxord sat in his seat, atop the ludicrously-named Gizmo Shop in the ludicrous city, drank his tea, and watched the Nobodies swarm. The screams of the citizenry, which would have tugged...must be tugging at Cid’s heartstrings and compelling him to dash down and help, merely struck Luxord as slightly grating to the ear. _What did you expect? To invade a nice, operatic world where all the death-screams were arias?_  
  
Hmm. He’d have to look into that.  
  
Xemnas had told him about the Nobodies’ ability to exert command over the foul Heartless…a fact which rather tasted to Luxord like being named Emperor of Dung…and their mission. The idea of fashioning a Heart of All Worlds from the captive hearts these creatures collected appealed to the Gambler. It had been long foretold that the Heart of All Worlds was capable of granting the heart’s desire of anyone who found it, if that desire were strong enough. That was why the leader of the Heartless…Xemnas’s ‘other self,’ the man who ran around calling himself Ansem…searched for it so. “Once Kingdom Hearts is ours, we can exist fully and completely,” Xaldin had told him. _Over and over again,_ he thought ruefully.   
  
To Luxord, existence meant one thing: The reclaiming of who he was and the life he’d led. His greatest joys…building fantastic, undreamed-of vessels, then using them to soar through the air or sail across the water…had been taken from him. The sensation of loving a man…and being loved by him in return All he knew now was the animal lust he shared with Xaldin...and even that was only a hollow echo of life, a simple satisfying of a basic urge.  
  
About him, Gamblers swarmed...Nobodies of his own creation, given power over dice, cards, and chance. Idly, Luxord wondered where this fascination with gambling came from as he took a drag from his cigarette...it certainly wasn't something Cid had enjoyed.  
  
 _A shard of a memory...a now-familiar swirl of black hair as a red-clad figure climbs the stairs of a theme park's haunted mansion to the garishly-decorated rooms. A sultry look over the shoulder, red eyes gleaming in the night as perfect, kissable lips curve into a slow smile. A pool of red as the cloak falls from his body..._  
  
Luxord shook his head in astonishment and irritation. _Bugger me, but where did **that** come from?!_ He'd been remembering more and more of his time as Cid lately...probably due to his proximity to the man himself.  
  
Looking over the line of rooftops, he smiled coldly. There he was, right on schedule...rushing out of his shop in the First District to do battle. Even though his skill with the spear was long gone, the mechanic still wore a pair of bracers studded with bright, glittering Materia, which shone so brightly the Gambler of Fate could spot them even from his faraway vantage point. And over the rooftops in that same district, Luxord saw a billowing flow of red that had to be the cape of Cid's lover...the man he had loved, and would love again, once he took the pilot's place and reclaimed his lost heart.  
  
Biding his time, Number X vanished into the corridors of darkness. It wouldn't do to tip his hand so early in the game.  
  
~*~  
  
"Vinny, look alive! We got a situation!"  
  
Cid looked around as he slammed his wrists together, the Materia in his homemade armbands flashing with unreleased potential as he looked for the man he loved.  
  
"Relax, Cid," the gunman's quiet voice sounded. Looking across the street, Cid saw the swirl of Vincent's red cape and the flash of his silencer-equipped pistols as Nobodies fell around him in waves. "I am well aware of the problem."  
  
Even though he was so far away, Cid realized he could hear Vincent's voice perfectly, as if he were standing right next to him. Not for the first time, the pilot wondered just how far Hojo had gone in his experiments on the ex-Turk's body and mind.  
  
 _If I ever see his ass again...ANYWHERE...he's a dead sonofabitch._  
  
The invective in his mind came as a surprise to Cid. He couldn't remember ever talking that way, even though Vincent assured him that at one point, every other word he'd said was a curse word. Suddenly, one of the weird white figures with pointy hats rolled a massive die at him, large enough to bowl a human over.  
  
 _Aww, hell. Fight now, think later!_  
  
Throwing his hand out, Cid called on one of the marble-sized stones embedded in his bracers. It glowed a brilliant green, and a bolt of lightning lanced out from his outstretched hand to strike the giant cube. While the Thunder spell wasn't strong enough to destroy the die, it did knock it off course, repelling it back at the Gambler, who was squashed into a pool of white fabric on the street as its own weapon was turned against it. Cid let out a whoop of victory as the Nobody dissipated into white, formless motes, and turned to face the next one.  
  
 _One down, a couple thousand to go. Fight smart, not hard, an' I just might make it OK._  
  
Rushing to Vincent's side, he stood back-to-back with his lover, throwing spells from the Materia he wore to match the gunman's shots. While Cid was by nature a man of science and machines, he couldn't deny that magic and Materia had a place in the world...especially if it helped him protect Vincent and do some good in the world.  
  
Flames burst forth from his hands, incinerating a trio of the Nobodies that had prepared some kind of freaky card attack. Another set of giant dice rolling towards them were deflected by a Protect spell. And of course, Thunder...Cid's favorite magic...was striking down their opponents on all sides, while he paused only long enough to chug an Ether (not stopping to wonder exactly what was in those things).  
  
Vincent, satisfied that Cid was handling the magic, relied on what he used best - his gun. Whether it was sniping the ones that were striking from a distance or shooting point-blank the ones that had gotten close enough to attack him or Cid hand-to-hand, his gun fired a steady hail of bullets, firing an impenetrable defense that would have demoralized and routed any living force they could've faced.  
  
But the Nobodies weren't alive, any more than the Heartless. And for every one taken out by a bullet from Vincent or a spell from Cid, a dozen more seemed to take their place. It was as if every being who had ever lost their heart to the Heartless had been gathered together by some unknown force and transformed into a card-tossing, dice-wielding master of chance and chaos. Against such overwhelming odds, even Cid and Vincent weren't sure if they could hold out indefinitely.  
  
Then, the unthinkable happened. Despite the protective spells he was summoning, one of the Gamblers got through Cid's defenses and made a slashing motion with a card, cutting a deep gash in Vincent. The gunman didn't scream...even if there had been time, he never made any more noise than a simple grunt of pain. But he went down, all the same, lying at Cid's feet in a spreading pool of blood.  
  
"Vince! NO!"  
  
The panic and rage in Cid's voice echoed through the square as he cradled his injured lover in his arms, frantically marshalling his forces for a Cure spell. But then one of the Gamblers' giant dice struck him, sending him sprawling several yards away...well out of range of his healing magic.  
  
"VINCEEEEEEENT!"  
  
The rage Cid felt was beyond anything he could remember. The mechanic's hands flashed outwards as he glared at the Gamblers with a mix of fury, pain, and madness in his eyes. Elemental spells flared to life around him, a cacophany of wrathful magic that sought a target, an outlet for Cid's rage at these demons who dared hurt the man he shared his life with...  
  
...But then a roar echoed over the battlefield, and the threat of Cid's magic became irrelevant.  
  
Vincent's fallen form had vanished into thin air. In its place was a sleek, black monstrosity, a demon with massive wings and burning eyes of magenta. Its talon-like claws extended, hungry to slice through Nobodies, and as it raised its voice in a second howl of challenge, Cid saw even the creatures who knew no fear shrink back from the horrifying form of Chaos.  
  
For his own part, the pilot could only grin. _Give 'em hell, darlin'._  
  
The fight was relatively short after that. Before long, the only two forms left alive on the battlefield were Cid and Chaos, which glared down at him as if to challenge his very existence.  
  
Fortunately, Cid had faced this form of Vincent's before. Edging closer, a little at a time, he started to talk, in as soothing a voice as his harsh Rocket Town drawl could manage.  
  
"C'mon, Vince. Fight's over, we won. Ya can go back t'bein' yerself now. Just relax, let alla that anger outta ya..."  
  
Somehow, Cid's word were getting through. Chaos's wings folded around him, blurring, shifting, until it was Vicnent's iold, familiar red cloak. Slumping to his knees, the gunman gasped for breath, and Cid rushed to his side, relieved to see that the wound inflicted by the Gamblers' cards had healed during his transformation.  
  
"Let...the anger...out of me? You wouldn't believe...how ridiculous that sounds...coming from you."  
  
Cid lightly smacked his boyfriend's arm. "Shaddup. It was kind of a desperate sitch, I said the first thing that came t'mind."  
  
Vincent let out a low, gravelly chuckle, and the pilot was relieved to hear him get as close as he ever got to laughing. Then, the ex-Turk's arms went around his lover in a fond embrace.  
  
"It worked, even if not quite the way you intended. You brought me back. Thank you."  
  
In the middle of the street, bruised and sore from the battle, the pilot embraced the gunman, and together in that brief, shining moment, their victory was more assured than any fanfare could affirm.  
  
~*~  
  
Luxord watched from the shadows as his other self hugged the object of their mutual desire. His lip curling in disgust, he raised his hand, returning the fragments of the Nobodies to the ether from whence they were called.  
  
 _This round to you, Highwind. The power of Chaos has saved you, just as it avenged you the night I was born._  
  
"Disappointed?"  
  
The silky-smooth voice behind him didn't startle or surprise Luxord. Xaldin loved dropping in on him at the least opportune moments...like now. The Gambler of Fate turned, his face supernally calm.  
  
"Actually, no," he lied. "This was only a test. I wanted to see how well my other self performs without the spear skills he used to possess." A thought came to him, and he tilted his head. "Come to think of it, where did those go? I couldn't fight with a spear if my life depended on it...so to speak."  
  
Xaldin's lips curved into a scythe-like smile. "That's a complicated question, Number X. There are many, many things about our current state of 'being' that we don't fully understand. I could answer it for you..." Suddenly, he was behind Luxord, his hands all over the Gambler's body, pulling at his robes. "..but I think we have better ways for you to get over your defeat."  
  
Luxord opened his mouth to protest, but it was quickly stifled by Xaldin's harsh, demanding kiss. Resigning himself to defeat in this as well, he turned his face to better receive Xaldin's kiss, letting the larger Nobody's hands explore his body as he pleased.  
  
A corridor of darkness materialized, swallowing the two Nobodies as they vanished into the ether once more, leaving not a trace of their passing on the streets of Traverse Town.


End file.
